Diversity in Editing: Manifest Manners, False Representations and Rhetorical Sovereignty

This chapter builds upon the theories of Jean Baudrillard and Gerald Vizenor to determine how writers might edit to make use of the kind of realism Sherman Alexie draws upon in his representations of the reservation he writes about in his stories – or, at least, to rely upon source texts that are historically accurate to inform our own writing. Accurately representing historical and contemporary Native American peoples can be managed by conducting appropriate research. In addition to Alexie, this chapter describes representations by Frank Speck and A. Poulin, Jr, and makes suggestions for methods of editing those representations so indigenous peoples are described in realistic ways, rather than as simulacra, or copies where there is no original that those copies are based upon.